LANGUAGE AND RACE. 405 



of a language. The modifying influence in pronunciation 

 of one dialect or tongue upon another is often very marked 

 in the lapse of years. A very good example is the 

 adoption by the Kafirs (or Bantu negroes) of the peculiar 

 clicking sounds of the Hottentot (or Koi-Koin) tongue. This 

 is the more strange, because the sounds are difficult to 

 produce ; and the superiority of the borrowing race is patent 

 to all. 



The Norman Conquest had a great deal to do with the 

 softening of the gutturals of the Anglo-Saxon. 



A mixed race inherits the phonetic capabilities of its 

 parents, and we acquire our pronunciation almost entirely 

 in the mimetic days of childhood. 



As regards the importance of rules of Syntax, there is 

 very great variety in different tongues. The Chinese follow 

 the strictest precepts in regard to it, and their rules are 

 sufficient to give perfect clearness to a language consisting 

 entirely of monosyllabic roots. They may therefore claim 

 to have supplied every requisite for the interchange of 

 thought by this means. Syntax is to them of prime im- 

 portance, for position alone decides whether a word is used 

 as a verb, a substantive, an adjective, an adverb, or a pre- 

 position. Their use of intonation and accent is also a very 

 great assistance in conversation. 



As a contrast to Chinese, we may take Latin, where no 

 special arrangement of words is prescribed in the structure 

 of a sentence, and the position of the parts of speech is left 

 very much to the artistic feeling of the speaker. As to the 

 position of the verb and objective noun in a sentence, it 

 is to be noted that though the usual place of the verb in 

 Latin is at the end of the clause, and that this is an almost 

 absolute rule in German and Dutch, the Romance languages 

 place the verb before the objective case. 



